Are you excited about the release of the Brian Buckley Band video for ‘I Am Human’ starring Supernatural’s own Jared Padalecki ? We are!!

We chatted with Brian yesterday about the making of the video, and what they are most excited about. Jared girls, listen up, because seeing Jared through his best friend’s eyes never fails to make us fangirl him even more.
Lynn: Why did you decide to vid “I Am Human”? It’s one of my personal favorites, but what made you choose that one?

Brian: I think we felt that there was an emotional resonance to it. And there was a strong audience reaction to the song, it’s very emotional. We also thought this would be something that could be interesting visually. And we thought that everyone would be able to relate to it. At least we hope everyone does!

Lynn: I do.

Brian: (laughing) I’m glad!

Lynn: And it is very emotional. When we’ve heard you play it live, it literally gave us goosebumps.

Brian: It is very emotional, yeah. And I think that was a good incentive for us to see what that would become visually. We’re doing another video of Bye Blue Sky which is also very emotional and personal, but this one was special.

Lynn: Is the concept for the video similar to ones you’ve done before. With “As If”, there was a narrative arc and then cut away to the band performing.

Brian: Yes, we try to stay to that, we wanted to keep to the music. And it’s important to us, we really believe in the live gig. I think a lot of artists nowadays don’t, but we’re musicians first and foremost, and we really do.

(We love the band’s live gigs, so Lynn was glad to hear this. She refrained from badgering Brian to come play on the East coast soon, but barely….)

Lynn: I know you really respect Jared as an actor, and he’s said many times how much he respects and admires you as musicians – but this was the first time you collaborated with all of you sort of “doing your thing” on the same project. What was that like?

Brian: (laughing) Actually, he shot his days mostly separate from when we shot ours. I was actually out of town some of the days he was shooting, unfortunately. I would have preferred to be there, but in the end, as he and I joked later, it was probably smart that I wasn’t. Because Jared knows what to do as an actor, and he and Sarah Wilson, the director, were great together. She’s incredible, a multimedia artist, her films are fantastic. She did another recently with some of our music, The Accidental Death of Joey by Sue, which is great. But they kinda had a really great working relationship. So yeah, we didn’t actually do scenes together.

Lynn: I don’t know why I always expect that to be the case, so often when filming is happening, the actors aren’t even actually talking to each other at the same time. But the magic of film always fools me! It sounds like it all came together, though.

Brian: It did, exactly. We wanted his story to really complement our music, and our music to really complement the story, so that was important to us, that the narrative and the music didn’t feel out of place to each other. That it didn’t feel like it was too much of his story or too much of the music, that we walked that fine line, which I hope we’ve done. So it was quite cool, kind of hearing Jared and Sarah talk about the experience of shooting it. Because you almost have to look at this like a silent film. We wanted the storyline to be really simple, and so the collaboration that happened between Sarah and myself and Jared was really kind of key to the whole process. It was really quite cool to look at things simplistically, using music. My instinct is to kind of do things more experimental or avant garde visually, and musically too.

Lynn: I’d totally describe your music that way, so that sounds really intriguing.

Brian: It was quite nice to tell this story this way. The video for “As If” was very dramatic and heavy, and we didn’t want this to be the same, but to be an introspective performance, which Jared delivered in an incredible way.

Lynn: Of that I have no doubt! It was probably a bit different for him, not the same as filming a movie or television show. Did he find it challenging or fun?

Brian: (laughing) I think he would probably say more the latter. But I’m assuming he would say both. The interesting thing about him is that kinda nothing is out of bounds for him as an artist, which I highly respect him for. At the level he’s at with his own artistry and with the Show, it would be easy to lay back and not do the hard things, maybe not the things you’re passionate about, the things that people might lose respect for you because you’re taking a chance. So all the applause goes to him for taking this opportunity.

Lynn: I remember you told us over a year ago that Jared really wanted to do this.

Brian: Actually he was really the one saying this is something I really wanna do, that I’m passionate about. And he kept saying it. Our schedules kept not coinciding, which was the difficult thing. He’s a little higher up on the pay grade than we are, and he was like, you don’t want to have to come to Vancouver and snag me, I don’t think the CW would appreciate that. You’ll see in the video too, but he did it without pushing the envelope in a way that would disrupt, or call attention to him, or pull any focus from what we were trying to do with the video and the music.

Lynn: So it was a true collaboration.

Brian: Absolutely. He was such a pro on set, working with Sarah. She’d say ‘let’s do this shot, what about that way,’ and he’d say, ‘that sounds great.’ I’ll give you an example – towards the latter half of the video, he wears a suit.

Lynn: (interrupts excitedly to clarify for fandom) He wears a suit??

Brian: (patiently repeating) He wears a suit. And Sarah said, look, we can go with a tie or we can go with a bowtie, we can go more quirky and stronger, what do you think? And Jared was like, I think the bowtie should be there. So here’s a guy who is for all intents and purpose is a tv star, a sex symbol to a lot of women, and he’s the guy who’s like, I wanna do what the video calls for. It’s kind of unbelievable.

Lynn: (distracted by picturing Jared in a suit and bowtie) Um. Yes. Wait, no! It’s not unbelievable really, when we’ve chatted with Jared he always seems very grounded and so thoughtful about his craft.

Lynn: So, did anything funny happen during the shoot, or did anything not go smoothly?

Brian: Actually, one of the shots is of Jared running. And I don’t remember how he did it, but he sent me a text on the flight down he said, ‘I gotta tell you, I hurt my foot really bad, I don’t know if I can do the running shot.’ But he did, he got through it. And again, when you get to that level and you’re still ready and willing to fight your way through the pain like a good athlete, that’s pretty impressive.

Lynn: (is impressed — and is also now picturing Jared running in a suit and bowtie….)

Brian: Actually, I’ll tell you a cool little story that Jared probably wouldn’t tell anyone, but he actually made sure that the song was playing in the background of every single take he did. So that’s like 30 hours of listening to the same song, for every take. That was really cool – he’s so serious about his craft. It was pretty awesome.

Lynn: You know, that doesn’t surprise me. He’s serious about the music, and respectful of the music – and the video is about the music, so that makes sense.

Brian: (laughing) Exactly. I’m just glad he didn’t choose some other band.

Lynn: Okay, so I know how excited I am about this video. But what are you most excited about?

Brian: I think, I’m excited for the fact that Jared is such a dear friend – my best friend – and it’s pretty awesome that he would risk – maybe that’s not the right word, but that he would offer up his services to me in such an unconventional way to support something he believes in, not as my friend but as a musician, literally for zero dollars. That’s something he wouldn’t say, he wouldn’t say that he flew back from Austin twice just to do this. It’s not even that I necessarily want people to know that, it’s just that I don’t believe he should be that unsung a hero. People should know he did it because he believed in the music and not just because he’s a friend. Though I’m sure it’s an element of that!

Lynn: (being serious now, and feeling very lucky that Jared and Jensen are the kind of guys our fandom gets to have as our own) Actually, I respect him for both. For his loyalty as a friend and how seriously he believes in the music. Tell him I said that.

Brian: I will.

Lynn: What other exciting news does the BBB have coming up?

Brian: Actually, we’re really excited that we’re releasing a record that we did in 2009 that never got released because we were in the process of leaving our label. It’s called Without Injuring Eternity, and it’s going to be released about the end of September, physically and on iTunes. We’re very proud of it – it’s with Mark Howard, the producer who worked with Bob Dylan and U2 and Tom Waits and the Chili Peppers. We’re so excited for people to finally hear it!

The ‘I Am Human’ video is tentatively set for release tomorrow – check back here, and at the band’s website, Twitter and Facebook for updates!

Brian: Shoot me a text when you’ve seen the video and let me know what you thought, okay?

Lynn: Absolutely!

So fandom, are you excited too? Tell us! Looking forward to more of the BBB’s powerful music — and introspective!Jared in a suit and bowtie??

ETA: I’m thoroughly overwhelmed by how incredible the video is and pretty much at a loss for words at how much it moved me (and I’m rarely at a loss for words!) Go watch ‘I Am Human’ and leave BBB and Jared your thoughts – hopefully more articulate than mine right now!

Since I know Jared Padalecki would do this video with this song, I can’t wait for the outcome and can’t wait to watch it. Finally its time for the release and I am ready, uploaded i-tunes especially to be able to watch “I am human!”! Go Jared! And go BBB!! Thanks for this interview!

No I’m not looking forward to this and I would love for BB to get his own fans and quit trying to leach Jared’s. At some point a musician has to stand on their own merits and not those of their acting friends. Wonderful that Jared cares enough to help, pathetic that BB just keeps on using him to promote his band. Get out there and tour like the rest of the musicians BB and earn your stripes.

In all seriousness, this collaboration really was Jared’s idea. He’s a fan of the music – what better experience than to be able to participate in something that’s exciting for you, that you’re passionate about? Any fan would jump at that chance – well, okay, I would anyway! Jared should be able to do that too, famous or not. I hear you that everyone needs to make it on their own merits and pay their own dues, but this band’s been making music and playing live gigs for years and shows no sign of stopping. As far as promotion, blame us – we wanted to share our excitement about the video with the rest of Supernatural fandom, as we are often known to do 

Fan Phenomena: Supernatural on Amazon

Fangasm on Amazon

Fandom at the Crossroads on Amazon

Fan Culture: Theory/Practice on Amazon

Our Story

This is the story of two college professors who fell hard for a show called Supernatural. Obsession, devotion, fascination, call it what you will. We decided to figure out what was going on with us by writing a book on fandom from the fans' perspective. As academics do, we hit the libraries and internet, accumulating stacks of articles and hundreds of pages of research. We typed and revised and theorized, quoted and footnoted, and ended up with an academic text crammed full of the current scholarship on fandom.

This is not that book.

Somewhere along the line, the research took a back seat to the road trip as we traveled across the US and Canada interviewing the show’s fans, as well as the actors and directors, writers, journalists, bloggers, convention organizers, significant others and insignificant hangers-on. Fangasm! is the story of that year-long roadtrip -- the surprises we never saw coming, the secrets uncovered, the behind-the-scenes insights, the heartwarming and heartbreaking fan confessions. It’s also the story of our shared obsession and the friendship that sustains us through 4 am line-ups, overtaxed credit cards, canceled flights and airport camp-outs, and of course the occasional accusations of insanity.

Order Fangasm now from Amazon by clicking the link at the top of this page.

Media Coverage

Check out the February 2016 issue of Nylon Magazine - we're quoted in an article about fandom!

What Else We’re Writing

We've written several articles for Supernatural Magazine, including features on the fan convention experience, and behind the scenes on the set. We have also written the academic version of this story, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships , and edited a collection on fan culture, Fan Culture: Theory/Practice.
You can also order our book Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, with chapters by cast, crew and fans of Supernatural. Check out what Misha Collins and Richard Speight, Jr. have to say in their insightful (and amusing) chapters. Click the links at the top of the page to order.

And coming in May 2017, look for an exciting new book - Family Don't End With Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Changed Lives with powerful chapters by ten Supernatural actors including Jared Padalecki!

Kathy is also the Principal Editor and Lynn on the Editorial Board of The Journal Of Fandom Studies, published by Intellect. The most recent issue is available now.